Have you ever wondered how to tell the
difference between a seal and a sea lion? Well here are a couple of easy
ways to spot the difference.

1)
Sea lions have external ear flaps. The ears are located on the sides of
their head. [Sea lions are in the family,
Otariidae. These three particular animals are California sea lions (Zalophus
californianus).]

Seals
have ears in the same place, but do not have external ear flaps. They hear
through tiny, barely visible holes on the side of their
heads. [Seals are in
the family, Phocidae. This young animal is a Pacific
harbor seal (Phoca vitulina).]

2)
Sea lions have large front flippers. They can rotate their rear flippers
under their bodies and can walk very well on land using all four flippers.

Seals
have small front flippers and can not rotate their rear flippers under their
bodies. They are rather awkward on land and generally move "inch
worm" fashion.

California
sea lions are very gregarious animals. That is they usually like to hang
out in groups. This large group of animals are almost all males. The
two sexes generally don't mix as adults until the breeding season, usually
around June.

Walruses
make up the third family of pinnipeds, Odobenidae. These
two animals are Pacific walruses (Odobenus rosmarus rosmarus). Both
males and females have tusks.

Walruses
are more closely related to sea lions than seals, but have physical
characteristics of both. 1) They have large front
flippers and can rotate their rear flippers under their bodies. They can walk
very well on land using all four flippers like a sea lion.

2)
Walruses do not have external ear flaps. They hear through tiny, barely visible
holes on the side of their heads, like seals.

Walruses
are pretty gregarious animals too. The wild population of Pacific
walruses seems to very healthy, numbering about 250,000 animals. This is
probably very close to their historically high population number. They can
often be seen in groups measuring in the hundreds of animals.

These
four walruses were hand raised and really like to interact with their
trainers. Perhaps because they are such gregarious animals, they now just
considered people to be part of their social group.